Goonhub
10-13-2025, 05:38 AM
I'd like to preface that I really love salvagers, from both sides, and I really like how salvagers currently hold a nice point in the lineup of being an antag that offers a decision between being sneaky and stealing things from the station, or being a bit more forward and obvious. While I enjoy all types of antag, I don't enjoy having to lay low as all of them, and the gradual escalation of a salvager round done well from unknown to nuisance to full-on threat has made for some of my favourite moments as a whole. Both as sec and as antag, I yearn every now and again for a bit of a squad-v-squad shootout, and salvagers is lovely for that while still offering other options.
When it comes to the points thing, I think there's a big hole in the salvager lineup to really drive it home - it is incredibly difficult and arduous for salvagers to actually start taking the station apart. Walls, flooring, doors - that sort of thing - take a looong action bar from a hand cranked device to get some measely scrap out. Easily the most valuable thing on any station is tech storage, followed often by a few bridge destinations or starting to take apart various devices. Having an upgrade that allows you to start taking proper chunks of the hull out in return for an actually worthwhile profit - would go a long way.
The other side of the coin of course being that a powersink just makes it super easy to get loads of point - which I think honestly, would be counterbalanced by making it less subtle? Make using a power sink start shorting out the main power grid - maybe it messes with connected devices, or they randomly get deprived of power intermittently; if it's obvious to the station someone's stealing the power, it's a lot harder to plant one down on the solars, sit for ten minutes, and then go buy all of your valuable, end-game salvager loot.
I think the most important thing when it comes to the power/punishing feeling you mentioned is simply the same thing a lot of the antags have - your own life is super precious. You're in there for one round, and unless someone's managed to steal a whole cloner setup, you get caught with any serious measure of having attacked the station, your round's done there. I feel this, more than anything necessarily regarding gear, is the biggest thing that drives salvagers to laying low until they're fully kitted out with blingy stuff. As it stands, even without security opening the armoury, if you don't have a bunch of the big salvie things, you have to be pretty robust to take on a medium-to-large sized security team, which many players simply aren't. And I don't think you should have to be max-robust to get to have most of the fun in an antag.
So my thought is - what if we added a salvage point reward that, either through detecting crit or an emote like syndie implants, allowed for an emergency extraction back to the Magpie? I feel like this would make it feel much safer for salvagers to interact and get a bit rowdy without feeling like they have to gear up to the max to stand a chance against a well-prepared security team.
When it comes to the points thing, I think there's a big hole in the salvager lineup to really drive it home - it is incredibly difficult and arduous for salvagers to actually start taking the station apart. Walls, flooring, doors - that sort of thing - take a looong action bar from a hand cranked device to get some measely scrap out. Easily the most valuable thing on any station is tech storage, followed often by a few bridge destinations or starting to take apart various devices. Having an upgrade that allows you to start taking proper chunks of the hull out in return for an actually worthwhile profit - would go a long way.
The other side of the coin of course being that a powersink just makes it super easy to get loads of point - which I think honestly, would be counterbalanced by making it less subtle? Make using a power sink start shorting out the main power grid - maybe it messes with connected devices, or they randomly get deprived of power intermittently; if it's obvious to the station someone's stealing the power, it's a lot harder to plant one down on the solars, sit for ten minutes, and then go buy all of your valuable, end-game salvager loot.
I think the most important thing when it comes to the power/punishing feeling you mentioned is simply the same thing a lot of the antags have - your own life is super precious. You're in there for one round, and unless someone's managed to steal a whole cloner setup, you get caught with any serious measure of having attacked the station, your round's done there. I feel this, more than anything necessarily regarding gear, is the biggest thing that drives salvagers to laying low until they're fully kitted out with blingy stuff. As it stands, even without security opening the armoury, if you don't have a bunch of the big salvie things, you have to be pretty robust to take on a medium-to-large sized security team, which many players simply aren't. And I don't think you should have to be max-robust to get to have most of the fun in an antag.
So my thought is - what if we added a salvage point reward that, either through detecting crit or an emote like syndie implants, allowed for an emergency extraction back to the Magpie? I feel like this would make it feel much safer for salvagers to interact and get a bit rowdy without feeling like they have to gear up to the max to stand a chance against a well-prepared security team.